We arrived in Orlando on Sunday night. The Clifton's had already been to 2 days of amusement parks...Universal Studios and Magic Kingdom. Emma was having a delightful time already, including at the place they were staying which is like a child's paradise. You can go to Terri's family site to get more details about the trip. Monday we went to Magic Kingdom. That was pretty awesome. We were there for a little while before the Clifton's came. Of course, I would have preferred it to be a little cooler and less muggy but it was well worth it. Emma was so thrilled with so much of what we did; it was really fun to see her sparkly smile. It was neat to see how many special arrangements and acknowledgments that were made since Emma was Make-a-Wish.
On Tuesday, we decided to go Disney/MGM Studios. Unfortunately, Terri had to take a trip to the ER with Tylerboy due to his ongoing health concerns. Mom went with her. We missed them a great deal while at the park but enjoyed our day with Emma. She loved the live-action Little Mermaid play and especially the Muppets 3-D presentation. She saw that with Tyler while we went on the ever-so-awesome Aerosmith roller coaster and then again with all of us later. She kept laughing like crazy and squealing. It made it 10 times more fun.
Funny side story about the roller coaster to show what kind of a spaz I can be...so Rob, Kyrie, Ani and I decide to go on it. Now Kyrie doesn't have a lot of coaster experience and I do feel kind of spastic about not pushing her to go on ones that seem scary to her. She'd gone on a pretty wile one the night before but it was wild without being especially scary. I didn't even think about it with this one and I'm still not sure why. We get in and see the cars heading off and I realize it's a mag-lev coaster. I realize that they weren't joking about 0 to 60 in 2.6 seconds. I realize that I'm not sure Kyr's going to be okay with this. We get in with Kyr sitting by Rob and Ani with me. Kyr's laughing and giddy and I'm getting more nervous. The coaster car pulls around the bend and stops before the big acceleration and.....OH MY GOSH!! It was like free falling sideways and then flying up immediately into a huge loop with ongoing twisting and turning in the dark. I was terrified that Kyr was going to be terrified. I spent the whole ride trying to keep from crying because I was so worried she was going to be freaked out. It turned out that the crazed, maniacal laughter that came flying back to me from up ahead was her. She found it be frightening but the thrilling, enjoyable kind. I was so relieved...so relieved in fact that Kyr & I went on it again while Ani & Rob went on the Tower of Terror. Kyr and I screamed and laughed our heads off all the way through. By the time the day was over, she'd ridden that coaster 4 times, more than any of the rest of us.
Tyler had Emma get her caricature drawn as a gift for Terri which came out really cute. Kyr really wanted one, too, so she got a Jedi one as seen here.
Fortunately, Tylerboy was able to come join us, along with Terri & Mom, at SeaWorld the next day which was our last day there. Most of us found this to be our favorite day. Kyr, Rob, Ani & I were there for about an hour before everyone else arrived. We saw an adorable animal show that was quite stunning. The animals were all rescue animals. It was nifty and absolutely adored by one Miss Emma. We got to feed and pet dolphins which was awesome. 
I've never quite outgrown my little-girl fascination with those amazing creatures. We watched them swimming from an underwater observation area. So beautiful. We saw a fantastic dolphin and whale show. I can't remember what kind of whales they were but they were just a little bigger than the dolphins and very darkly colored. The show featured spectacular dolphin antics, high divers, and beautiful music. They also released some brilliant red parrot-type birds to fly out over the audience. I caught Emma's face as one flew by and it radiated amazement and wonder. It was so wonderful to see her so delighted and thrilled.We saw a smaller show that featured 2 sea lions and a really cute Asian river otter (an oversized water ferret). It was very humorous and pretty wild when they brought out the 2300-lb walrus at the end. As we were leaving after the show, one of the trainers saw our Make-a-Wish t-shirts and invited us to stay behind. We were able to meet Pugsley the Sea Lion who insisted on splashing Emma & Tyler quite thoroughly. We got some fun pictures that I'll post soon along with billions of others that were taken on the trip.
Mom, Tylerboy & I took Emma and Kyr to get their faces painted while the other big people went and rode the Kraken (aka big, scary coaster). The girls' faces came out beautifully. On our walk back over to meet the others for the Shamu show, some random person who was sitting around eating his ice cream called out, "Hey, Make-a-Wish family! Are you guys having a good time?" We said yes and he asked a few more things and wished us a fantastic remainder of our trip. It was just such a sweet thing to do.
Shamu's show was spectacular. The thing I loved the very most out of all of it, was the sweet little baby who was swimming alongside his/her mama. So cute! It was a wild show, though.
Our trip back home was nice although we missed Mom. She'd flown back home to Maryland from Orlando since my dad's month long trip out of the country was postponed. We're glad she got to go be with her man but we had really enjoyed having her with us.
It was a really special trip and we're so glad we were able to go. Thanks for inviting us, Emma! We love you, sweet girl!!
2 comments:
I so LOVED the Aerosmith ride. it was AWESOME!!!
We loved having you guys come! You added such a level of entertainment and relief - relief with TS who was not the happiest little guy during this. You made it much more fun than it already was and we are so glad you could come!!! LOVE YOUS!
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